Friday, August 04, 2006

1. If I blog again I will have to ask someone to proof read it and correct it for punctuation and that seems like a lot of work plus asking for a favor.

2. I miss my blog. I want to blog. I am going to blog again. I am blogging right now!

3. But I can barely say anything. I mean, my niece and nephew can read it for chrissake.

4. I am tired of being so “open.” I want to be more closed. No! Door 1/3 open.

5. I am trying to finish the book "My Beautiful Loss-Of Faith Story" or give up on it. Not sure which way it’s going at this point, but I’m headed towards a readable draft by the end of the month at which point others can tell me if it’s publishable.

6. My cd comes out soon. I know. It’s taken a bazillion times longer than I thought it would. Like a year longer. But I wanted to do it all myself and I made every mistake you could make. I didn’t like earlier recordings and finally got one I liked. I spent three months trying to clear the music rights for some of the back ground music and then my producer found a way to cut out the music that we needed clearance for. Then I decided I wanted to print a text of the show and that meant basically designing an 80-page cd sized book and that took forever. Then I hated the picture I was using and had new pictures and the whole thing redesigned because of that. BUT now it’s almost done. It comes off the presses on August 25th. In fact, I will have two cds at that time, “Letting Go Of God” (2 cds, I big booklet) and “In The Family Way.” (That one will be one cd and no booklet.) It will be available to be bought off my website after Sept. 15th.

7. I am hiring a publicist and everything for the cd! Like a real professional!!! I'm pretty stoked. This whole do-it-yourself thing is wild. I mean, I could have released the cd through a label, but I wanted to do it myself and… it’s pretty fun, even if I probably lost a lot of sales because of how long it’s taken me.

8. I am not taking the show to New York in the fall. I was going to. I planned on it. Producers planned on it. And then, I just couldn’t. The reality of it began to sink in. Eight shows a week. Moving Mulan to a new school or home-schooling her (eeek!) Bringing a nanny. Never seeing Mulan because I am up, wired after the show, every night. Getting my house in L.A. ready to sublet. And then, doing the show that much. Suddenly, I realized I just couldn’t do the show that much! I want to do about fifteen more performances of my show. I want to do them around the country in different theaters. I want to film my show (now scheduled for December.) And then, I will be ready to stop. So, that’s what I’m going to do.

9. I accepted an offer to perform my show at Harvard in October (the 26th). This will sort of be my test performance before booking other Universities. Which I won’t do until after I film my show in December. Also, I’m writing two television pilots and I will be overwhelmed with work anyway. Plus, I’m doing this really great show for PBS about scientists at Cal-Tech and I’m going to be interviewing professors at the end of September. Busy. But the good kind of busy. Unless my head implodes.

10. I really shouldn’t be writing all this in my blog, but instead posting it on my website. I think I’ll do that too. Wow. I’m already sort of disorganized.

11. I just went on two big trips this summer. First to Iceland where I performed my show in Reykjavik. Mulan went too and so did my boyfriend Michael (!!!#!). We toured around for a week afterwards with various other people from the convention and had a blast. When I got home I was a bit ill and got very little done and then we all (Michael, Mulan, Me) went on another trip, this time to Hawaii. Oahu and Maui. I was gone 11 days. Now I’m happy to be home. Ready to work. Oh yeah, but my mother is visiting until Sunday. However, the visit is going very well. I just need to meditate three times a day for ten minutes each. Or at least that’s what I tell myself will make me the serene, above-the-chaos, compassionate, focused person I want to be. But I don’t have time to meditate three times a day for even ten minutes. But I have learned to pretend that I’ve meditated and I actually get a little hit of calm just thinking about it and imagining that I had meditated. That takes only about a minute. Maybe I should be writing about that. Instead of the One Minute Manager, the One Minute Meditater. “Get the Serenity of the Dalai Lama in only 45 seconds GUARANTEED!”

12. I’m doing a show at The Hollywood Bowl, August 25 & 26. I’m performing twenty minutes of my second monologue, “In The Family Way” and it’s going to be orchestrated by the L.A. Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Slatkin. I’m not sure why I am being given this most amazing honor. Anthony Marinelli wrote the score. It’s really beautiful. We worked together for a couple of weeks on and off and it’s just… what an experience this will be. Just the scoring of it has been an unforgettable experience. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Hollywood Bowl as a spectator and I got to go up onstage after the show was over and saw what the Bowl looked like from there. It gave me tingles.

13. Now I really am mad at myself for not writing this in various places on my website.

14. Oh yes! Jill Sobule and I are doing two more shows together at Largo. August 22 and 29th. We had even more fun doing shows together the last time we performed.

15. I’m doing the Uncab on Saturday August 12th at the M Bar. Michael Patrick King is also on the bill. Should be fun!

Found your blog after hearing the This American Life episode featuring all Julia, all the time...dealing with my mom's cancer right now myself and your comedy gave me great big belly laughs that felt so good, I listened to it twice. So thank you.

First, welcome back! Even a short "I'm still here" would have been appreciated, but wow! Quite an entry for a return!

Next, you have no idea how amazing it is to hear you worry about your spelling and grammar on your blog! I know that none of us would really care, but after seeing excerpts from Britney Spears' site, it's pretty obvious that not everyone has that same concern ;-)

It sounds like not moving to NY is motivated a lot by your concern for Mulan. That, also, is wonderful. Priorities are wonderful things, even when they make life difficult. But it sounds like you're doing the best you can, and that's all anyone can ask.

As far as lost sales go for the CD, I have a feeling that you will still have pretty healthy numbers considering how you affect people :-)

Good luck on your plans! We'll be thinking of you and dropping back in from time to time to see what's up. Just do what you need to and do it the best you can!

Found your site (via TAL) about 2 months ago and kept checking back with dwindling hope of continued blogging. What a beautiful surprise this morning. I hope to see your show, even if I have to make a roadtrip from the farm fields of lower Michigan.

I normally don't post more than one reply to a blog posting, but I had an unexpected surprise this weekend.

After telling my wife how glad I was to see a new blog posting from you, Julia, we had spent some time talking about how much we appreciate your show and your site.

On what seemed like a completely unrelated note, somehow or another, I realized that my young son would probably enjoy the "Gremlin" movies. So a quick trip to the store, and we had both ready to go. It had been many years since I had seen either one.

We had *no* memory of you having been in "Gremlins 2" so the instant we heard your voice, we both jumped! While not on the screen long, you did give us the chance to explain to our son who you are, and why we think you're such a good person to have in the world.

He's only 6, but he knows we're atheists, and how to politely handle children who might want to pick on him for not believing. Now he knows who you are, and you have a new young fan.

It was partly because of you that I started my site, to show other atheists they're not alone and many of the problems we're having aren't necessarily new.

So, thank you again for being out there and giving us all a public face!

You're back...hooray! I have a friend visiting LA and kept telling her to go see you...but I didn't know where to tell her to go exactly since I didn't know what you were up to. Now I know! Welcome back! You were sorely missed out here on the WWW.

Welcome back to blogging, Julia, and we sincerely hope that you can find time to blog occasionally. No pressure. ;->

My wife, daughter, her boyfriend and I saw you and Jill at your last Largo show, it was great and we plan to be there on the 22nd. You have the uncanny ability to make us feel like we're just friends hanging out in your living room. Really nice.

You also seem to be unique in your ability to explain your journey from God without being pedantic or anything. Keep it up, and we're really looking forward to the CD, no matter how long it takes!

So glad to have something to read on your blog again. I've looked at it almost every day since March, hoping, hoping. I really love your writing, your free style, you openness. I understand the desire to be more closed at times, I have that same desire, but I fear it isn't to be. I can't keep my mouth shut. Blab it all out.

Have 3 grandkids visiting for the week and we're taking them to Silverwood Theme Park in Athol, ID. Wish us well, I think we'll come home and collapse.

I think this is the first time I've added a comment to your blog, but over the years I've seen you on SNL, watched your movie based on your SNL character, listened to a recording of your wonderful performance (about cancer in your family), and listened to you being interviewed online about your latest show (and am looking forward to seeing it, as well as listening to your new CD).

We have some friends in common like Michael Shermer of The Skeptic mag (who was so fond of a reply I sent a producer of "Faith Under Fire" that Mike asked my permission to publish it in his E-Skeptic magazine). A few years ago I also sent Shermer a few boxes of freethought books for the library he was starting. And it looks as though he will be speaking at the university where I work. (Plans are in the works.)

Shermer and I also have in common the fact we are both "apostates." I've even been called an "antichrist" on the web, which makes me think that conservative Christianities of various sorts remain popular partly because they provide a handy, ready-made vocabulary of contempt: “Heretic!” “Blasphemer!” “Idolater!” “Infidel!” “Anti-Christ!” “Apostate!” “Schizmatic!” “Demon Deluded Servant of Satan!” “As Fit to Be Fried as Lucifer’s Lamb Chops!” All without it ever going to court. (Later I found out that I was wrong about that last line, because it HAS gone to court. One woman sued her pastor in 1993 for writing a letter to the congregation that connected her with “Satan.”)

Speaking of "apostasy," I edited, Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists that Prometheus published. Since my book featured male testimonies almost exclusively, I've been working on a list of female theologians and writers who explain in their published works why they "left church." You'll be on the list (to be posted sometime in the future at Debunking Christianity, a blog run by ex-Christians).

I'm also a Jill Sobule fan (you haven't kissed that girl, have you?), and enjoyed her onscreen performance in a recent film in which she played a guitar-strumming street performer in Jersey who finally gets a chance at playing The Bottom Line in New York. She's a witty lyricist and talented on the guitar that reminds me of Christine Lavin (though I don't recall Sobule ever having been a member of Christine's "Four Bitchin Babes" troup). By the way, I like funny guitar songs (and fingerstyle instrumentals), and am producing a CD of them that will include a classic Evangelist skit, as well as songs titled, "We Need a War (a pre-anti-war song)," "Loving Infection," "Dead Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and, "Riding the Top Ten To Rock and Roll Heaven."

Here's hoping that with your talents you'll continue to inspire (and lighten up) the religious/non-religious conversation in the U.S.,

Wow! Great news! I've been checking your site periodically for several months now for news on the CD (thank This American Life for piquing my interest; it seems I'm a member of a very big club), and finally seeing that there's a release date made my night.

You're like a modern-day Robert Ingersoll. I've listened to the TAL show about twenty times now, and I'm still not sick of it. The only other person I can think of that has had that effect on me would be George Carlin.

Please finish your book. I have read many books this summer about woman who find faith, and while they are elegant and beautiful and very convincing, the other side of the story must be told. Please. Tell your story!

Bridesmaid pandora jewelry is no doubt now becoming very cheap pandora popular and is continuously enjoying the reputation it gets for pandora.co.uk being able to transform a simple girl pandora uk into a stunningly beautiful pandora jewellery bridesmaid. Because of its popularity and good reputation, this kind of jewelry is now an essential part every bridesmaid's preparation for pandora jewellery uk modern day weddings.

About Me

My book "If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother," published by Simon & Schuster, is out on April 2, 2013. I am doing a film of our show, "The Jill & Julia Show" with Jill Sobule, which will be available by April 1st.

Search This Blog

Shows and Speaking Events

I have several events booked in connection with my book's publication.

1.) Feb. 9, 2013 Saturday Darwin On The PalouseDarwin on the Palouse 2013 There is a free showing of "Letting Go of God." I will be introducing the film and answering questions afterwards. Moscow, Idaho, University of Idaho